conjugating ser
So ser is the verb to be? Are Spanish verbs so much harder to conjugate than English verbs or am I just used to English and therefore find it easier? I was looking at all the tenses for ser and feeling really overwhelmed.....
5 Answers
Romance languages like Spanish, Portuguese or French have very complicated verbal conjugations and you can't get away from them. Germanic languages like English, Danish or German, have simple conjugations (some irregular and strong verbs) and use auxiliary verbs far more frequently - I have got, I will do, ik heb gezien, jeg skal siger. But then in Spanish, you don't need to learn which verbs take "to be" or "to have" in the perfect tense (like in French or German). Neither has it got a long list of prepositions. Unlike in English,it hasn't got really complicated phrasal verbs which are very hard to fathom out. Things like, "After you have chopped down the tree you can chopped up the wood." or "Go and sit down and sit up!"
Yes, ser is the verb "to be"
And no not all conjugations of Spanish verbs are as difficult as ser. Estar and ir are also two interesting verbs. These three are the hardest, in my opinion. Once you learn the regular -AR verb endings and the regular -ER endings and -IR endings you won't be as overwhelmed.
Anyone know of a language where 'to be' is conjugated regularly? 
I was thinking about this the other day. English 'to be'. Spanish 'ser'. Italian 'essere'. French 'être'. German 'sein'... all irregular.
I'm sure there are some, but at least for the European ones, it shows some commonality.
I believe that it is a matter of your familiarity with English conjugations for To be.. All of the verb conjugations of Spanish exist in English (with the exception of two past tenses). The subjuncitive forms of to be in English are used more than with most other English verbs.
I was tired .... (indicative)
If I were tired....(subjunctive)
As a matter of fact, English might use some of the forms that in Spanish are in disuse like the future perfect subjunctive, etc. (If I were to have been...) If I were to...(future subjunctive)
look in the conjugation section of mas at the top of this page.
